Herman Melville

Moby-Dick

Cover of Moby-Dick

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Language: English
First published: 1851
Reading time: 919 minutes
Chapters: 138 chapters

About this book

"Call me Ishmael." A restless young man signs on as a sailor aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship out of Nantucket, and only far out at sea does the crew meet its captain, Ahab, who has lost a leg to a great white sperm whale and has sworn to hunt it down. Herman Melville mixes high adventure with sermons, jokes, scenes written like a play and whole chapters on the science and hard work of whaling. Little read in his lifetime, the book is now seen as one of the great American novels. Take it slowly; its storms and its strange crew stay with you.

(Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School.)

About this edition

Source
Project Gutenberg (eBook #2701)
Text version
Project Gutenberg eBook #2701 (updated 9 October 2026), downloaded 7 November 2026; according to its transcribers it combines two earlier e-texts and was compared with a public-domain print copy. The title lines, the contents list and the transcriber's notes were not imported. Melville's own "Etymology" and "Extracts" (part of the 1851 book) are kept, followed by the 135 chapters and the Epilogue, with Melville's footnotes. Layout only: the e-text's two-space indents and the full stop at the end of each chapter heading were removed.
License
Public domain
Copyright status last verified: 9 November 2026
Category
Classic Novels
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Chapters

138 chapters

Etymology1 min
Extracts15 min
Chapter 1. Loomings10 min
Chapter 2. The Carpet-Bag7 min
Chapter 3. The Spouter-Inn26 min
Chapter 4. The Counterpane8 min
Chapter 5. Breakfast4 min
Chapter 6. The Street4 min
Chapter 7. The Chapel5 min
Chapter 8. The Pulpit5 min
Chapter 9. The Sermon16 min
Chapter 10. A Bosom Friend7 min
Chapter 11. Nightgown4 min
Chapter 12. Biographical4 min
Chapter 13. Wheelbarrow8 min
Chapter 14. Nantucket4 min
Chapter 15. Chowder6 min
Chapter 16. The Ship24 min
Chapter 17. The Ramadan10 min
Chapter 18. His Mark6 min
Chapter 19. The Prophet6 min
Chapter 20. All Astir4 min
Chapter 21. Going Aboard5 min
Chapter 22. Merry Christmas7 min
Chapter 23. The Lee Shore2 min
Chapter 24. The Advocate8 min
Chapter 25. Postscript2 min
Chapter 26. Knights and Squires6 min
Chapter 27. Knights and Squires8 min
Chapter 28. Ahab7 min
Chapter 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb6 min
Chapter 30. The Pipe2 min
Chapter 31. Queen Mab4 min
Chapter 32. Cetology23 min
Chapter 33. The Specksnyder5 min
Chapter 34. The Cabin-Table10 min
Chapter 35. The Mast-Head12 min
Chapter 36. The Quarter-Deck13 min
Chapter 37. Sunset3 min
Chapter 38. Dusk2 min
Chapter 39. First Night-Watch2 min
Chapter 40. Midnight, Forecastle7 min
Chapter 41. Moby Dick17 min
Chapter 42. The Whiteness of the Whale16 min
Chapter 43. Hark!2 min
Chapter 44. The Chart9 min
Chapter 45. The Affidavit16 min
Chapter 46. Surmises5 min
Chapter 47. The Mat-Maker4 min
Chapter 48. The First Lowering17 min
Chapter 49. The Hyena4 min
Chapter 50. Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah5 min
Chapter 51. The Spirit-Spout7 min
Chapter 52. The Albatross4 min
Chapter 53. The Gam7 min
Chapter 54. The Town-Ho’s Story35 min
Chapter 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales9 min
Chapter 56. Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes6 min
Chapter 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars5 min
Chapter 58. Brit5 min
Chapter 59. Squid4 min
Chapter 60. The Line7 min
Chapter 61. Stubb Kills a Whale9 min
Chapter 62. The Dart3 min
Chapter 63. The Crotch3 min
Chapter 64. Stubb’s Supper13 min
Chapter 65. The Whale as a Dish5 min
Chapter 66. The Shark Massacre3 min
Chapter 67. Cutting In4 min
Chapter 68. The Blanket6 min
Chapter 69. The Funeral2 min
Chapter 70. The Sphynx4 min
Chapter 71. The Jeroboam’s Story10 min
Chapter 72. The Monkey-Rope8 min
Chapter 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him10 min
Chapter 74. The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View8 min
Chapter 75. The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View6 min
Chapter 76. The Battering-Ram4 min
Chapter 77. The Great Heidelburgh Tun3 min
Chapter 78. Cistern and Buckets8 min
Chapter 79. The Prairie5 min
Chapter 80. The Nut4 min
Chapter 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin19 min
Chapter 82. The Honor and Glory of Whaling5 min
Chapter 83. Jonah Historically Regarded4 min
Chapter 84. Pitchpoling4 min
Chapter 85. The Fountain9 min
Chapter 86. The Tail8 min
Chapter 87. The Grand Armada21 min
Chapter 88. Schools and Schoolmasters6 min
Chapter 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish7 min
Chapter 90. Heads or Tails5 min
Chapter 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud11 min
Chapter 92. Ambergris5 min
Chapter 93. The Castaway7 min
Chapter 94. A Squeeze of the Hand6 min
Chapter 95. The Cassock3 min
Chapter 96. The Try-Works8 min
Chapter 97. The Lamp2 min
Chapter 98. Stowing Down and Clearing Up5 min
Chapter 99. The Doubloon11 min
Chapter 100. Leg and Arm12 min
Chapter 101. The Decanter8 min
Chapter 102. A Bower in the Arsacides7 min
Chapter 103. Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton4 min
Chapter 104. The Fossil Whale7 min
Chapter 105. Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?7 min
Chapter 106. Ahab’s Leg4 min
Chapter 107. The Carpenter5 min
Chapter 108. Ahab and the Carpenter7 min
Chapter 109. Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin4 min
Chapter 110. Queequeg in His Coffin10 min
Chapter 111. The Pacific2 min
Chapter 112. The Blacksmith5 min
Chapter 113. The Forge6 min
Chapter 114. The Gilder3 min
Chapter 115. The Pequod Meets The Bachelor4 min
Chapter 116. The Dying Whale3 min
Chapter 117. The Whale Watch3 min
Chapter 118. The Quadrant4 min
Chapter 119. The Candles11 min
Chapter 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch1 min
Chapter 121. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks3 min
Chapter 122. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning1 min
Chapter 123. The Musket6 min
Chapter 124. The Needle6 min
Chapter 125. The Log and Line5 min
Chapter 126. The Life-Buoy6 min
Chapter 127. The Deck4 min
Chapter 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel6 min
Chapter 129. The Cabin3 min
Chapter 130. The Hat8 min
Chapter 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight2 min
Chapter 132. The Symphony7 min
Chapter 133. The Chase—First Day16 min
Chapter 134. The Chase—Second Day15 min
Chapter 135. The Chase.—Third Day20 min
Epilogue2 min